The next day we hit the beach. First we went to explore around Morro Rock. Parker made ''mud castles'' and sand angels. Later, he and Chris explored the tide pools and found a hermit crab, which they brought back to Mommy, who was relaxing on the beach, reading a book. After Parker and Chris returned the crab to the water, we headed over to the other side of the Rock to check out the Strand.
When I was a kid, my mom took my sister and me there and I remember it being kitchy and fun. A little bit of Denmark. No passport required!
That said, we had lunch under a windmill. I had a Danish meatball sandwich and came to the conclusion that the Danes aren't know for their food for a reason. On second thought, I guess we should have hit a smorgasbord...but that would mean a buffet and Chris HATES buffets.
I bought Parker a Viking helmet. Plus, we had to get a tub of Danish butter cookies.
I really wanted to reproduce a picture my sister and I took with a statue of a Viking who was chilling on a bench. But, after asking around, I discovered that when the town got a facelift a while ago they removed the statue since it was kind of falling apart and they didn't want to fix it. BUMMER!
Oh well, we did find a big clog for Parker to sit in...I guess that will have to do.
John McCain's 7th house is actually an apartment, where he has two roommates...
''John McCain says he’s about change, too — except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics,'' Mr. Obama told his supporters in Virginia. ''That’s just calling the same thing something different. You can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change; it’s still going to stink after eight years.''
Now was Obama referring to Palin's pitbull/hockey mom/lipstick joke? Hell yeah. Was he being sexist? Not at all. Sexist would need to be a bit more objectifying...like the be the bumper stickers promoting Palin in Alaska (and proudly displayed at the GOP convention) -- ''Coldest State, Hottest Governor.''
I think this was just a clear use of a commonly used phrase. How common is it? Well, let's see...
''I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.''
McCain said that last year in October when criticizing Hillary Clinton's health care plan.
You have to admit...of the two who used the imagery...Obama delivered it best.
Click the headline if you want to read more about this in The New York Times article.
UPDATED 9/12/2008
Not sure if you saw this but I have to share it and give props to Papa Bear.
This is from last week's Daily Show but it's brilliant. Aimee's shared it on her blog and I have to continue the love.
...could that be considered playing the race card?
But I digress. I like how the AP article opens with, ''John McCain and Sarah Palin criticized Democrat Barack Obama over the amount of money he has requested for his home state of Illinois, even though Alaska under Palin's leadership has asked Washington for 10 times more money per citizen for pet projects. ''
It goes on to say, ''Obama hasn't asked for any earmarks this year. Last year, he asked for $311 million worth, about $25 for every Illinois resident. Alaska asked this year for earmarks totaling $198 million, about $295 for every Alaska citizen.
Palin has cut back on pork project requests, but under her administration, Alaska is still and by far the largest per-capita consumer of federal pet-project spending.''
The Republicans really have stop relying on their standard crutches (McCain's service and Palin's ''executive'' experience -- no mention of whether or not the city and state are in any better position) and start focusing in issues. The Dem's need to stop worrying about hurting the feelings of a girl and attack the Rep's fair and square.
Actually, I worked from home on my computer and dialing into conference calls. Not to bad but it hard to explain to Parker to be quiet because Mommy's working. Especially when Scooby-Doo is doing something particularly hilarious. Evidently there was one instance that Parker yelled ''No!'' at the appropriate time in the conversation. Unfortunatley, I couldn't hear the conversation too clearly via the other person's speaker phone so I didn't get the entire joke.
Oh well. Based on Parker's temp this evening, we should be good to jump back into our normal schedule tomorrow.
Things have been going well. I guess when the teachers said he was ready, they knew what they were talking about. Case in point, I knew Parker was up this morning because I heard the toilet lid slam shut. That's right, he woke up and went to the bathroom all by himself. AWESOME!
Published 9/6/2008
So we met with the genetic counselor at Dr. Samadi's today. Looks like the baby's passed his tests. While it's no guarantee that the baby doesn't have any genetic disorders (like Downs Syndrome), we seem to be in a pretty good place. For my age group, the odds of having a child with down is 1 in 700 but the tests came back with the odds something like 1 in 1500, which is good.
While at Dr. Samadi's we had another ultrasound. The baby is progress well but we did get one new piece of news. Looks like we won't be needing that boy's name since we now appear to be having a girl! Go figure. Kind of reminds me of my sister, who was suppose to be a boy named John. Of course, coming out a girl, her name was quickly changed to Joan.
Even though, now I feel we should wait another month to get a 2 our of 3 verdict on the matter, looks like, come January, we'll be welcoming Piper Mary Trillo to this world.
Yeah, I'm talking about Parker's potty training progress. He's doing fine. He doesn't seem to get the chart thing, though. He likes to put stars on the chart but he doesn't seem to get the big picture (the prize at the end of the tunnel). He's more of an immediate gratification guy.
Well, with that in mind, I've come up with a different motivation for pooping in the potty. (Because really, of the things you least want to clean up...poop tops the list.) My solution...temp tattoos. One for every time he drops "the kids" directly in the water when he's home. So far he's got on on each arm.
So next time you see him, complement him on his body art. The more tats on baby mean the less clean up for Mommy and Daddy.
This month the feature was Journey to the Center of the Earth, which we were able to catch in 3D over at Universal Citiwalk.
I though Parker would be able to sit through it but the man-eating Venus flytraps were just too much for the little guy so we had to leave the theater. But about 15 minutes later he was brave enough to venture back into the theater so we could finish the rest of the movie.
So I have to admit...I didn't make it through the original novel. There's definitely a different sense of timing. It takes them about a third of the book just to get to the volcano where they journey into the center of the earth. I couldn't help but get a bit impatient.
I did catch the 1959 movie with the boys (Chris, Parker, Thommy, and Geoffrey). It had Pat Boone so you know it would be a ''classic''. Plus, with that cast you know there would be a couple of songs to be sung by the crooner. The best part was either the rear projection ''giant lizards'' (which scared Parker) or the dolls that represented our heroes as they escaped. Then again, it could have been Pat Boone's Scottish accent. Like I said...''classic!''
"Quite a few people in the world have seen my penis," he says from his home in Los Angeles.
Tell me about it. On t-shirts, posters, larger-than-life murals on Tower Records on Sunset...yeah, I think that's a tad more than a few.
Published 9/6/2008
So, as I mentioned earlier, we have a girl's name left over from our first go around at this...''Piper''.
Did I mention how we came up with ''Parker'' and ''Piper''? You know that games...what's your drag name or what's your stripper name? Then you take the name of your first pet and the street you grew up on. Well, that's it. Chris grew up on Parker Street and I grew up on Piper Place. (Actually, the first place I lived at was Houser but I'm not naming my kid Houser...so I went with my second home.) I like to think of it as passing on a bit of one's childhood. Chris likes to stick to the originally stripper name origins.
Okay, so we have a girl's name but we now need a new boy's name. Surprisingly, we decided on a name pretty quickly. (Really, there was more drama naming the dog.) Parker's middle name -- Jonathan -- is based on my dad's name. So, this little one should have James for his middle name, after Chris' father. As for the first name...we settled on Jacob. He can always use the nickname Jake if he wants something less biblical and serious. And anyways...are all Jakes hot? :o)
So there you have it -- Jacob James Trillo.
Published 9/6/2008
So, based on our initial scans, Dr. Tzeng is having us start seeing Dr. Samadi, the preinatal doc we saw for Parker's pregnancy. He'll take us through our genetic screenings and will also be handling the rest of our ultrasound scans. (The one bonus of having a baby after the age of 35 is that you get a ton of pictures as the doctors keep check on the baby's development.) So three weeks later, here's what's the baby looks like in 2D and 3D...
According to the doc, the baby's healthy. Actually, he said he was "textbook" perfect. ROCK ON! Based on his measurements, he's 12 weeks and 4 days old.
And did you notice the pronoun? Yeah, we're looking at a boy. We had a girl's name left over from Parker's pregnancy so we have some homework to work on.
Published 9/6/2008
I like how we'd ask stuff like -- "Are those the legs?" "Is that a hand?" and we'd get corrected...changing the mentioned appendage to I guess the more clinically correct term..."bud". Wouldn't want people to get their hope up too much, I guess.
Well, even though it's too early to know the sex of the baby, we do have a better sense of how hold the baby is -- 9.6 weeks -- and when we should expect to meet the baby in person -- January 26, 2008. (I know Geof's hoping the baby will come a day earlier so he'll have a twin to share his birthday...not to mention, another reason for Aimee to celebrate on Burn's Night.)
Published 9/6/2008
So, I went to my first appointment with Dr. Tzeng, only to discover that he's retired from the baby delivery business. :o( Bummer! He'll see me for the first trimester but after that I'll need to transfer another doctor, Dr. Navi (who I believe was the back-up doc in case Dr. Tzeng wasn't available when it came time for Parker to be delivered).
Oh well, in the meantime, the baby seems to be doing fine. Dr. Tzeng is thinking that the baby may be due a little earlier than what my normal doc, Dr. Sheh, predicted. But he'll have me get a sonogram to a better reading on the baby.
Published 9/6/2008
So, our suspicions have been confirm. We're pregnant and looking to have our second child early next year...probably early February.
Now I just have to get in to see the OB-GYN who delivered Parker, Dr.Tzeng, and get us started on the string necessary appointments. At least this time, it's a bit more ''old hat'' with less questions in the air.
So, within a few days, Dean finally realizes that he has nothing to fear in Frankie and the two become quick friends who enjoy wrestling and chasing each other around the house. And that's a good thing because Dean has too much teen kitty energy for me...especially around 3am. So anything Frankie can do to tire him out is greatly appreciated.
Yup, Dean's doing well as the newest member of the Trillo family. His current domain is the master bathroom which gives him plenty of place to roam, with out giving him a run of the house.
Check out that tail. It's like three or four times it's normal size.
When you can't find the cat...check the drawers. Some how Dean climbed up from the laundry hamper up into the cabinetry. Looks like I need to clear out this drawer.
